Game(s) Monday - Tuesday 12/17

[PuckNA]

Deast wins 3-2

DE very good team. No doubt. Surprised they don't rack up more points. Fast and physical. They are a large team overall. Must be nice to be able to have a HSE player on 3rd line, speaks to their depth. Shots were 2-1 DE favor.

Probably more impressed Centennial hung in as close as they did with 2 Soph D men starting for them (Sr. captain out for this game) and 3 in total on the back end (also 2 more up front).

[Stang5280]

Buffalo wins 5-4 over Chaska.
Bison scored off a sloppy rebound with a few minutes left to pull off the victory. Don’t know the shot totals, but it was 23-15 in favor of Buffalo midway through the 3rd. Bison completely neutralized Chaska’s top line during the second half of the game. Mueller didn’t even play in goal for Buffalo, but the backup was solid after some early jitters. The Hawks are completely perplexing... the talent flashes at times, but there is just no cohesion or consistency.

Missed the first period but sounds like it was pretty even each way with Chaska up 2-1, but I had a very different takeaway with the rest of the game. Chaska absolutely dominated zone time and possession, and there’s no way those shot totals recorded were correct. Basically it was a couple of bad rebounds, two or so bad mistakes, and then a couple PP goals (also bad mistakes) and Buffalo capitalized on all of them. Backup for Buffalo played well and Chaska definitely struggled to convert on great chances after jumping out to 4-1 lead.

I agree with you for the most part. Chaska definitely carried play for most of the game. However, they didn’t really create much in the way of quality scoring chances in the later portions of the game, and failed to really pressure Buffalo, who was content to pack in their defense and wait to counterattack. Also, I would contend that Jake Braccini looked better than any of Chaska’s highly touted players, even though he doesn’t have nearly the same level of supporting cast.

I think the larger question is why a team with the talent Chaska has is making so many mistakes on a regular basis. Teams like Buffalo, Eveleth, and Sartell should not be beating the Hawks, and yet they are. In the end the shot totals and possession time don’t really matter unless you convert them into goals.